CHERUB: AGENT
by Flyere
Summary: Jo Forrester was the youngest Black Shirt in cherub history-and this is her story. Mackenzie Jo Tanner has been stuck in a children's home for three years. When a new girl moves in, however, her life changes in an instant. New name, new life, and fame await her at Cherub-she just has to be brave enough to take it.


MACKENZIE:  
"This my room?"

Mackenzie Tanner looked to the doorway to see a girl, who looked to be around twelve, shouldering her way in. "I guess" Mackenzie replied, pulling the door open for her. "They told me I was getting a new roomate. Dunno who you are."

"Amy Co-Hale" she said hastily. "Amy Hale."

"Did you forget your surname?" Mackenzie asked, slightly amused. "I'm Mackenzie, only I hate the name. It makes me sound like a little girl."

"How old are you?" Amy asked, dropping her bags on one of the two twin beds in the room. "I thought they'd put me with someone my own age."

"I turned ten three days ago" Mackenzie replied defensively. "They try to stick you with someone close to your age, but most of the girls here are little. I'm one of the oldest."

"Oh" Amy said, looking slightly disappointed. "Have you been here long?"

"Since I was seven" Mackenzie replied glumly. "My mum died when I was born. Dad was killed six years later. Joy."

"Oh. I'm sorry. My parents died last year" Amy said with a shrug. "We were never very close."

"Welcome to Halston House, then" Mackenzie replied, her arms wide, figuring it was best not to ask how. Some people got sensitive over that stuff. "Enjoy the dump before you get chucked out. We've got too many kids already."

"Dunno why they put me here then" Amy said bitterly. Mackenzie noticed the odd way she said "they." The social people didn't choose where she went, it was only if there were openings.

"Well, I've got to go talk to someone named Julianne. D'you know where I can find her?"

"Yeah" Mackenzie replied, sitting up straighter on her bed. "I'll walk you down. I have to pick up my allowance anyways."

"Oh, we get cash?" Amy looked interested. "Three quid a week" Mackenzie replied dryly. "Don't get too excited."

"Oh." Amy sat back on her bed. "Guess I won't be going shopping any time soon."

"Can we go?" Mackenzie grabbed the key to their door and stepped outside. "Why are you taking that?" Amy asked, confused.

"Never leave the door unlocked. Stupid Joey Craig and his gang of muscleheads rob anything you don't tie down."

"Don't the carers ever do anything about it?" Amy wondered. "They can never pin it on him. I doubt they'd care, though. One of those boys-Cold Monell-chucked a kid out his window last year cause he grassed them up. He broke both wrists and his ankle. All they did was take away his allowance for a week."

Mackenzie locked the door firmly before slipping the key in to her pocket. "Lets go" she said, bouncing down the stairs. Amy followed more leisurely.

"Julianne, Amy said she needed to come see you" Mackenzie said, pointing to the older door. "I figured I'd come down and get my allowance either way."

"Here" the sour-faced carer said, shoving three quid across the counter. "Take Amy to the uniform closet. I've found her a spot at West End."

"Unlucky you" Mackenzie said, gleefully walking back towards Amy. "It took them a week to find me a spot when I first got here. You get to jump right in."

"Screw them, then" Amy said sourly. "Where do you go."

"Same place" Mackenzie said. "Uniform isn't too horrible. The blazers are disgustingly green, though. What size are you?"

"Dunno" Amy replied. "I'll just see what fits...this one looks fine."

Eventually they found her an ok-fitting skirt and blazer. "You're lucky you didn't get placed at East. Its way farther. The bus stop for this one is only five minutes away."

"Its still school, and it sucks" Amy replied with a laugh. "C'mon, lets go back up to our room."

Amy led the way this time, school uniform hanging from her hands. When they got in, she unceremoniously whipped it on to the floor. "Good place for it" she declared, looking over to the tiny TV set up. "I'm assuming that only gets like two channels?"

"Pretty much" Mackenzie replied. "I don't like TV much anyways."

"What do you do in this dump, then" Amy asked. "Doesn't look like there's much to be done."

"I like to run" Mackenzie said brightly. "I do pickup races and such for the school. I cant sprint much, but I can keep going for ages. How about you?"

"Sports? Not really my thing. You seem to like it, though."  
"Its something to do, at least" Mackenzie replied. She glanced over at the clock. "Its gone ten. We have to wake up at seven-we should go to bed."

"Where are the toilets?" Amy asked, grabbing a toothbrush from her backpack. "Down the hall and to the left" Mackenzie replied. "I'll be there in a bit."  
Amy left, and Mackenzie changed quickly. She grabbed her own toiletries and exited the room, nearly running in to Amy, who was coming in. "That was fast" Mackenzie commented, passing her by and walking down the hall.

AMY:

Amy hadn't really gone to the bathroom. Waiting for Mackenzie to come out, she had stepped forwards as soon as she heard the handle click. She saw the bottle of shampoo in the younger girl's hand and figured she had about fifteen minutes to snoop around. Checking that the door handle was locked, she pulled out a lock gun from a zipper inside her bag.

Mackenzie didn't have much. Only a backpack and a sports bag were shoved underneath her bunk. Pushing the pack aside for the time being, she dove in to the sports bag. Second-hand trainers and shorts were stuffed inside. A thin jacket lined the bottom. Several pieces of notebook paper with doodles on them were scattered besides the bag.

Looking in the backpack, Amy found regular school books. Maths, English, sciences and stuff. Thicker books were stuffed in to the bottom, and upon looking at them Amy was surprised to find language books. Level ten French, Spanish, Russian, and Italian books were packed inside. A fifth book, Level four Arabic, was placed besides them. "Surely she couldn't speak all these" Amy muttered quietly. This was definitely something to tell Mac.

She replaced everything quickly and hopped back on her bed sat he door opened up. "I'm going to go make a phone call" Amy announced. "I'll be right back, mkay?"

Mackenzie nodded. Amy looked back in time to see her pull out the Russian book and slowly begin mouthing to herself.

"Mac" Amy whispered through her phone once she had gotten outside. "I think I've found one."

"In less than a day?" His voice was skeptical. "I hope you aren't simply trying to get out of your mission. You have a responsibility, Amy."

"I'm not just trying to get out of the mission" Amy snapped. "The girl I'm rooming with-Mackenzie Tanner. She's ten, but I've had a snoop around. She runs track and when I looked in to her school bags, she had five language books in there. Four were level ten and one was level four. The rest of her school work is ordinary. But she's athletic and obviously smart. Her parents died ages ago."

"She sounds alright" Mac said grudgingly. "I'll trust you on this one. We'll send a van. It should be there in about twenty minutes. Knock her out, put her stuff in a bin liner. Hurry. We'll tell the home a family has asked to meet her.

"It's gone ten" Amy protested. "We're all busy tomorrow. A big section of Maila's mission takes part tomorrow." Amy kicked the ground bitterly-she'd gotten booted off that mission.

"Whatever, yeah, I'll knock her out and get her stuff. There's a fire escape, I can hand her down to someone."

"Good" Mac said, satisfied. "Hurry."

"Yep" Amy said quickly, snapping her phone shut.

She ran upstairs quickly. Stepping inside, she kept the lights off and crept over to Mackenzie's bed. "Sorry bout this" she said quietly, jamming her finger hard in to Mackenzie's temple. She didn't make a sound, but Amy knew she was knocked out.

Leaving the girl lying on the bed, Amy pulled a roll of bin-liners from her bag. She quickly collected Mackenzie's items before checking out the window. A van had rolled silently up besides the building, and someone in all black was waiting below.

Amy dropped the bag first. It tumbled down, landing in the persons arms. She threw down her own bag after. Letting down the ladder, she went to get Mackenzie. The girl was surprisingly light, and Amy managed to carry her down the ladder safely.

"Amy!" Amy swiveled around to see someone she didn't recognize well emerging from the truck. "It's Zoe" the girl said, reaching to take Mackenzie. "Hurry inside-Joe's in a mood."

Amy cursed that it had to be Joe Chambers. He was a young mission controller with a brutal temper. Amy hated his guts.

"Coming" Amy replied, hopping in the van. Mackenzie was lain down in the middle row. Amy and Zoe sat in the very back, as far from Joe as they could get.

"How the hell did you get out of your mission that fast" Zoe asked, jealousy evident in her voice. "You were there for just a day!"

"Cos' I'm awesome" Amy replied, sticking her tongue out. Zoe shook her head. "You are so jammy."

"Shut your faces" Joe roared from the front of the car. The girls fell silent, only whispering on the ride back to CHERUB.

MACKENZIE:

Mackenzie woke up in a well lit room with a glass door. Shooting up in bed, she grabbed her temple, wincing. She felt as though an elephant had sat on her head.

"Where the hell am I" she muttered, looking around. Her first thought was she was kidnapped, but the room didn't look like the sort of place a kidnapper would hide out.

"Hospital?" She said aloud again. The room looked sterile, so she assumed that's where she must be. Why though...

Spotting some clothes on the floor, she figured they were there so she could wear them. Boots, trousers, and an orange T-shirt. The t-shirt read CHERUB in big letters, and an insignia of a cherub on a globe covered the front of the shirt.

Testing the door cautiously, Mackenzie found it was unlocked. Peering around the corner, she saw a hallway lined with what looked like offices. Stray coffee cups and pieces of paper covered the tables, and Mackenzie felt horribly out of place in her bright orange shirt.

A room marked "Reception area" gave way to a small waiting room where two kids sat in chairs along the wall. Their T-shirts were the same, only one of them was grey and one was red.

"Where am I? She asked to the boy in the grey shirt. "Can't talk to Orange" he replied automatically. She asked the same of the red-shirted girl. "Haven't you bloody well heard? I cant talk to orange scum like yourself." Mackenzie was surprised by her open hostility. She didn't say anything, only sliding in to one of the plastic chairs.

"Ruby Kane?" The sour faced red shirted girl followed some lady outside the room. Eventually, the grey shirted boy was called in. Mackenzie walked slowly up to the desk. "Excuse me, but I've no clue why I'm here. I don't know where I am."

The lady smiled. "Go right through that door" she said, gesturing towards a clouded glass door with "CHAIRMAN" on the front. Mackenzie pushed the door open quickly. An older man was peering out the windows. Upon her arrival, he motioned to a large wooden desk. "You can sit down" he said, doing the same. "My name is Terrence McAfferty. Most people here call me Doctor or Mac. You can say either."

"Um, well, Doctor, my name is Mackenzie, and I've no clue how I got here." Mackenzie looked at him suspiciously.

"This, is CHERUB." Mac gestured out the large window. "CHERUB is a secret agency of the British intelligence. Much like MI5 or the American CIA, we are what you could call a sly organization-only CHERUB is made up entirely of children.

"Wait, you're telling me CHERUB is a spy agency? For kids? You've got to be joking."

"I am being very much serious" Mac replied. "CHERUB is home to over two hundred children like you-young, intelligent, physically fit. We train our agents to go on undercover operations and missions much like those in the spy movies you kids enjoy so much."

"Why am I here" Mackenzie asked cautiously. "Are you asking me to join you?"

"If you'd like to try, there are a series of tests you must undertake" Mac said quietly. "Would you like to try?"

"What if I fail" Mackenzie replied in an almost hostile tone of voice. She didn't know if she trusted this guy quite yet.

"You'll find out if you do, won't you. Now if you still want to come, the first test will be starting soon.

Mulling it over for a moment, Mackenzie eventually got up. "Yeah, sure" she said. "I'll do it."

"Excellent" Mac said. "You can stay seated, though. Our first test will be a written exam." he slid the papers across the table quickly, as if he'd known she would say yes. Who would turn it down, though, Mackenzie reflected later.

The test wasn't too difficult, but the maths tripped her up as it always did. Mac took the papers without saying anything, stowing them away and standing up quickly.

"Your next test will be in your Dojo" he said, leading the way out of the building and on to a golf cart. "Before though, I thought I'd show you around."

Mackenzie tuned out most of Mac's tour. The man seemed immensely proud of his campus, but Mackenzie was too nervous to pay much attention. Eventually they pulled up in front of a Japanese looking building with springy grass fields around it.

"Here our kids learn Karate. Knowing how to defend yourself is an extremely important part of being a CHERUB agent. We try to keep our agents out of dangerous situations, but you have to know what to do should the likely event occur that you find yourself in a pinch." Mac hopped out of the cart, and Mackenzie followed him dubiously.

"This is Ruby" Mac said, gesturing to a girl in a karate uniform. Mackenzie noted with distaste that it was the sour faced girl from the waiting room. She slid off her shoes, noticing that everyone was barefoot.

"You and Ruby are going to spar. A point for each submission, and five submissions wina the match. When I say start, start."

Mackenzie nodded. She tried to copy the fighting stance Ruby was in, holding her arms up. "Scared" the girl sneered, and Mackenzie did her best to ignore her. Getting worked up was something she didn't need. "Hardly" she muttered back, even though it was obvious this girl could beat her.

"Start." Ruby sprang, and Mackenzie dodged, barely escaping a brutal punch. The second time she wasn't as lucky, and the fist hit her square in the stomach. She doubled over in pain, gasping for breath. "Submit" she wheezed, stepping back slightly. Ruby smiled, obviously satisfied. Mackenzie felt her temper rising, and fought to keep from losing it.

"Round two" Mac said. "Begin."

Ruby knocked Mackenzie out even quicker this time, hooking her leg back and smashing a palm in to her chest. Mackenzie realized if she wanted any hopes of winning, she would have to attack first.

"Round three" Mac said. "Start."

Before the word had even gotten completely out of his mouth, Mackenzie launched herself at Ruby, punching her savagely in the jaw. Anger fueling her punch, Ruby's head whipped back and slammed in to the wall behind them. Her unconscious body slid down, collapsing at Mackenzie's feet.

"I-I didn't mean to do that" Mackenzie stammered as a trainer rushed over. "I just-"

"It's alright" Mac said brightly. "You've won this test, actually, seeing as Ruby can't continue."

With an aching chest and stomach, Mackenzie boarded the cart with mac for the second time. "This test will test your swimming" Mac said as they arrived at a pool area. "Theres a swim suit tossed across one of the chairs-grab it and meet me back by the pool once you've changed."

Mackenzie changed in to it quickly, walking tentatively back out to the pool. "There is a brick at the bottom of the pool. Swim down, grab it, and put it on the edge of the pool."

Mackenzie had only swum once or twice, but she didn't want to appear weak. Jumping in, she floundered her way to the brick and grabbed it, splashing with some amount of effort. Swimming up, brick weighing her down, she managed to paddle over to the side of the pool and heave the brick over the edge.

"Excellent. You can go change for the fourth test."

This test involved an obstacle course of sorts. It wasn't too hard, and Mackenzie completed it in an ok time. They made her run twenty five laps of a track after. She finished with a new personal record and an extremely fast time. Mac seemed pleased after as he led her back to his office.

When she got back, a cage had been placed on Mac's desk. "This is Ollie" he said, bringing out a fluffy baby bunny. "Just borne. Say hi."

Mackenzie loved animals. She took the rabbit, scratching him behind the ears. "He's adorable" she said excitedly.

"I wan't you to kill him."

Mackenzie stopped short. There was no way she could kill an innocent animal. She didn't even eat meat. "No way" she replied defensively. "I love animals."

"Are you a vegetarian, then?" Mac asked. "Yes" Mackenzie said quickly. "I wont harm animals."

Mac raised his eyes. "Alright then" he said, taking Ollie and putting him back in the cage. "Before discussing your results, theres something curious on this page. Can you read this sheet aloud for me?" he asked, passing it over.

Mackenzie scanned the paper, finding it to be a news article. Rather than in English, though, each sentence was a different language. She read through the Italian, French, Spanish, and Russian with ease, stumbling slightly on the Arabic.

"Impressive. How did you learn so many tongues?" Mac asked, looking at her curiously.

"My dad was from Italy and my mom was from Spain" Mackenzie replied. "We had bunches of books in those two languages when I was growing up, so I just spoke those at home. When my Dad died, and I came to the home, I found books on other languages at the library. French wasn't too hard after Italian and Spanish, so that one was pretty easy. I taught myself Russian and Arabic was taught at my school. I'm not that smart at other stuff except that."

Mac raised his eyes. "Six languages at ten years old. Thats one of the most impressive things I have ever seen."

Mackenzie blushed. "Oh, uh, thank you" she said quietly.

"Now for your test results. Your written exam was quite good-you earned an eighty five, which is far enough. You managed to win the Karate test, which is rare. You received a very low pass on the swimming one, but you did retrieve the brick therefore we passed you. The fourth test was done excellently."

"I suppose I failed the last one, then" Mackenzie said dejectedly. Mac shook his head. "The test there isn't to kill the rabbit. Its to see if you'll let me bully you in to doing it, and test your strength of will. I'm glad to say you passed."

"So I passed all of them?" Mackenzie was starting to grow more excited. Maybe she would be able to stay here.

"Yes, and if you please, I'd be glad to offer you a spot. You can have a few days to think about it."

"I wan't to join" Mackenzie said quickly. "It looks great here."

"Excellent!" Mac said brightly. "Now for a new name. All agents have to change at least their surnames. You can change your first as well if you wish, but most agents like to keep their name."

"I'd like to change my first, actually" she said. "My middle name is Josephine, but my mum used to call me Jo. Can Jo be my new first name? And maybe Mackenzie could be my middle name?"

"Sounds good" Mac said cheerily. "How about your surname?"

"I saw a movie once where the main character's last name was Forrester. I always thought that was a cool name." Mackenzie replied.

"Jo Mackenzie Forrester" Mac said aloud. "You sure about that?"

Mackenzie nodded. "I'm sure. I like that name."

"Alright then, Jo." Jo smiled. She liked her new name. She had always hated the name Mackenzie.

"Jo, on behalf of the British government, I'm happy to welcome you to Cherub." he tossed a blue shirt over the table. "Wear it with pride."


End file.
